WASHINGTON: L&T Kattupalli Port, run by the Adani group, has posted 220 per cent increase in its container volume during the first six months of 2016-17. The Kattupalli port cashed in on the congestion issue that is plaguing Chennai Port which reported a 2.5 per cent decline during the same period. From April to September 2016, L&T Kattupalli Port handled 1.80 lakh twenty-foot equivalent units of containers (TEUs) against 56,450 TEUs for the same period last year. The company officials attributed the volume increase to introduction of new services.
“We have added four new vessel services this year namely, Maersk Line’s Colombo Salalah Shuttle service which shifted from Chennai Port to Kattupalli completely in April,” said a senior port official. “In addition to this, the other services we are handling are the Chennai Colombo Gulf service operated by Evergreen Line and Simatech, MD1 – Singapore Port Klang feeder operated by BTL, Wanhai and OOCL and ACS service operated by HMM Line. “We have got six weekly vessel calls connecting coastal ports and global transshipment ports thereby acting as an ideal gateway for the domestic and Exim trade in this region,” the official said.
Adani group’s is expected to give a tough competition to Chennai Port in the coming days once Adani’s new container terminal at Kamarajar Port will be commissioned in the next few months. With this, the total cargo handling capacity of Adani group at Kamarajar Port and Kattupalli Port will touch 2.8 lakh TEUs per annum. Meanwhile, Chennai Port has announced waiver of port rail charges for three months to ease congestion on road and increase rail share of container traffic between Chennai and Bengaluru.
Chennai Port has decided to extend waiver of port rail charges (haulage at Rs.125 per TEU and terminal handling charges of Rs.22.97 per tonne) to Container Corporation of India for their container train operations on this sector. “The minimum reduction would be around Rs.450 per TEU and this will definitely benefit the trade. Last time, when Chennai Port announced the waiver, Concor passed on the waiver to the industry,” said a trade official.
